Thanks but all of the credit goes to mother nature and the inherent beauty of the plants.

Sometime in December when we mowed the last time, we just dumped the mower bag into the (empty before that) washtub, about half grass, half shredded leaves. I put the cuttings in the tub in March. It really was that easy, much easier than carrying it all to compost pile, then back where I wanted to use it. In z5 you probably mow last in Oct and plant in April, which would offset the colder temps by sitting longer.